Cavs notebook: Varejao gets respect in Sixth Man Award race

Cavs Notebook: Anderson Varejao finishing third in balloting for Sixth Man of the Year pleases his coach.

Chris Beaven

Figuring out the value of a guy that comes off the bench to defend, rebound and hustle like crazy isn’t always easy.

But when it comes to Anderson Varejao’s value for doing all of that, the Cleveland Cavaliers just point to their win totals the last two seasons. And after helping the Cavs win a league-best 127 games the last two regular seasons, Varejao’s role in that success finally earned him some attention Tuesday.

The 6-foot-11 forward-center finished third in voting for NBA Sixth Man of the Year.

“Hopefully, it’s a step in the right direction for future awards,” Cavs Head Coach Mike Brown said. “... We’ve won a lot of games, and you’d hope he would get recognition.”

Atlanta guard Jamal Crawford won the award easily, receiving 110 of the 122 first-place votes and totaling 580 points. Dallas guard Jason Terry finished second (220 points) followed by Varejao, who received two first-place votes and 126 total points in the voting.

Brown said Crawford “is well deserving” of the award after leading all NBA bench players by scoring 18.0 points per game.

The Cavs just don’t want to see Varejao ignored since he doesn’t put up big scoring numbers but provides as much hustle and energy as anyone. He was the team’s second-leading rebounder (7.6) and averaged 8.6 points on a team-best 57.2 percent shooting from the floor.

“He’s a big key to our team,” LeBron James said. “It’s great to see when a guy gets noticed, a guy gets credit for what he does in this league and for his respective team.”

Getting a chance

J.J. Hickson did enough with his first meaningful playoff minutes in the Game 4 rout to earn some more time in the rotation in Game 5.

Hickson played the final 3:34 of the first half Tuesday after Shaquille O’Neal picked up his third foul.

Head Coach Mike Brown credited Hickson for helping to slow down Chicago’s pick-and-roll game Sunday. Hickson also produced 10 points in that game. “I’ve got to keep trying to find minutes for him so he stays ready,” Brown said.

Z waits his turn

If Hickson stays in the rotation, that means Zydrunas Ilgauskas faces a diminished role, which he’s accepting.

“What are you going to do?” he said before the game. “Just stay ready.” Ilgauskas played only the final 31⁄2 minutes of Game 4 after sitting the entire game. “I was stiff as hell,” he said.

Ilgauskas has the middle two fingers on his left hand taped up after jamming them recently. “They’re OK,” he said. “My wedding ring still fits.”

Not looking

Much was made of LeBron James having a look in his eye Sunday that indicated he was beyond ready to play in Game 4. When someone told Brown that before the game, he said, “That’s great. I hope everybody else does.”

Brown said he doesn’t get caught up in trying to figure out if each guy has a certain look in their eye before a game.

“I try not to look at anybody because I hate to guess,” he said. “I usually guess wrong.”